


Shuttle 188

by therumjournals



Category: Star Trek XI
Genre: Airplanes, Airports, M/M, Pilots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-25
Updated: 2010-02-25
Packaged: 2017-10-17 16:00:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/178519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therumjournals/pseuds/therumjournals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my interpretation of what actually happened when two Northwest Airline pilots <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/us/24plane.html?fta=y">missed their landing at the Minneapolis airport</a> in October 2009.  As told in the form of a Star Trek fanfic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shuttle 188

“Have you heard anything…about Enterprise?”

The droning hum of the shuttle on autopilot had lulled Sulu into a light doze. Chekov’s question startled him awake.

“Huh? Uh…no. Nothing.” He rubbed a hand over his eyes and stretched in his pilot’s chair. He cracked a lazy grin in the navigator’s direction. “Why do you ask? Don’t tell me you’re not enjoying our scenic jaunts to Riverside, Iowa.”

Chekov shook his head seriously. “Oh no. Is good job, I know.”

Sulu chuckled. “It’s a shit job, Pavel, you can admit it. The same route, every other day? It’s so boring I could cry.”

“Still…is better to have job than not. Kirk and McCoy…”

“I know. At least we’re not stuck at the Academy waiting for the Starfleet bureaucracy to decide whether to promote us or kick us out on our asses.”

Chekov nodded slowly. It was an accurate description of how the Captain and CMO (if they were even that anymore) were spending their days.

“Chess?” he suggested. They still had 45 minutes left until they touched down in San Francisco.

“God, I’m even bored of chess, how sad is that?” Sulu shook his head and looked speculatively at Chekov. “Too bad this isn’t a solo flight, or I have an idea how I’d be passing the time.”

At Chekov’s questioning look, Sulu made a motion between his splayed out legs that had Chekov blushing deeply and looking away. Sulu grinned at the back of his head.

“So, Pavel, did you put in your request to be assigned to the Enterprise.”

Chekov turned back at the sound of his name, but he blushed again and looked down as he shook his head. “I did not request specifically the Enterprise. I did not want to – how do you say – put all my eggs in a basket?”

Sulu raised an eyebrow. “Right. Yeah, I guess it’s better that way.”

Chekov looked at him earnestly. “Crew is most important, I think, not ship. But I know you requested Enterprise, right? Is a great ship to fly.”

Sulu shook his head. “I didn’t request the Enterprise either.” He didn’t notice the flash of disappointment that crossed Chekov’s face as he continued. “It doesn’t matter to me what I fly.” He glanced around the inside of the shuttle cockpit. “Okay, well, I’d prefer something a little nicer than this,” he clarified. “But I’d fly anything, as long as-“

“What?” Chekov leaned forward a little.

Sulu blushed. “Nothing, never mind. Just, like you said, it’s the crew that’s important, right?”

“Right.”

Sulu grinned slyly again. “So how _do_ you think Kirk and McCoy are passing the time?” He nudged Chekov with his foot and winked at him.

“Um….chess?” Pavel suggested.

“Yeah. ‘Chess’,” said Sulu, making air quotes. “You know those two are more than friends, right?”

Pavel blushed a little and looked down, nodding.

“Who do you think tops?” Sulu mused, looking up at the ceiling.

Chekov’s eyes widened a little. He still thought of the two as his superior officers – hell, at seventeen years old, he thought of almost everyone as his superior officer – so he was a bit scandalized by the direction Sulu was taking this conversation.

Sulu didn’t notice, spinning lazily in his chair with his hands behind his head as he continued his line of thought. “I know Kirk’s got the ego, but do you really think McCoy would bend over for anyone? Literally and figuratively,” he said, looking back at Chekov to see how the young ensign was reacting to his admittedly lewd train of thought. He wasn’t surprised to see Chekov blushing - _again_ \- but he was shocked to see that the navigator was also squirming in his seat and biting nervously at his fist. If Sulu didn’t know better, he’d think his cute little navigator was getting slightly _aroused_. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure he did know better.

“Getting a little worked up, are you Pav?” Sulu asked with a smirk. “So…which one is it?”

“Sorry?” Chekov managed, as he sat up straighter and braced his hands on the console, staring at the screen as if he could concentrate away his sudden and rather traumatizing erection.

“McCoy or Kirk, which one do you like?”

“Um,” Chekov began nervously. This was his chance, he could just say one or the other and be done with this topic. Or, no, more likely Hikaru would grasp onto it and use it to torment him incessantly. He pressed his legs harder together and bit his lip. “I do not have crush on either of them,” he said, as firmly as he could.

Sulu looked skeptical. “Okay, if you say so. I wouldn’t blame you if you did though. I mean, shit, have you seen Kirk at the gym-“

“Please, Hikaru, stop!” Chekov burst, flushing immediately as he realized how harsh he’d sounded.

Sulu raised his arms in defense. “Okay. Okay, I’m sorry. You don’t like them, I get it.”

He spun his chair away to face the viewscreen, but glanced back when he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned slightly to see Pavel reaching to adjust his pants, pressing his palm against his groin as he did so. The navigator wiped a hand across his forehead and tugged at the neck of his uniform before turning his attention back to the console.

“Jesus,” Sulu breathed, glancing down to see his own uniform pants straining with the pressure of his hardening cock.

“Twenty minutes until San Francisco,” Chekov noted. Sulu nodded distractedly, then laughed to himself. Chekov turned to him with a questioning look and Sulu just shook his head, not making eye contact.

“Really hoped you’d request the Enterprise,” he mumbled, running a hand through his hair.

“Why?” Chekov asked.

“’Cause,” Sulu started, his voice firmer now as he looked straight at Pavel. “I said I’d go to any ship as long as I could work with you.”

Chekov stared at him in open disbelief, then he smiled widely. “Hikaru! I did not know this!”

“Yeah, no shit you didn’t know it, I wasn’t really planning to tell you.”

Pavel laughed and slapped a hand on his knee, then shook his head at Sulu’s confused expression. “Is funny because…because I did same thing! I said, assign me to Hikaru Sulu. He is best pilot and we are good team!”

Sulu was smiling now. “We do make a good team, don’t we?” he asked.

Chekov nodded. “A good team, yes,” he repeated softly.

He looked up at Sulu slowly, through impossibly long lashes, his smile fading into something a little shy and unsure.

Sulu sat up straighter. “Pavel, I-“ He blinked at the unexpected sight of lust in Pavel’s eyes and gave up on words, lunging across the space between their chairs. His lips landed on Pavel’s in a hard kiss that shocked them both. He pulled back, his hands clutching at the armrests of Pavel’s chair and looked at him, uncertainty twisting his features. Chekov nodded, almost imperceptibly, and Sulu leaned down again, let his lips linger softly until he felt Pavel pressing back into the kiss. He ran his tongue across closed lips and closed his eyes as Pavel moaned and opened his mouth, inviting the gentle swipes of Sulu’s tongue against his. Sulu kissed him gently, protective of his innocence. Or so he thought, until Pavel surged up from his chair, pushing him backwards, forcing him to reach back and catch himself on the console. It was all he could to do hold himself up as Pavel’s lips moved away from his mouth, kissing and sucking at his neck to the accompaniment of soft whimpering noises against his skin.

Sulu pulled his hands away from the console to wrap his arms around Chekov, one hand in his hair and the other fisted in the back of his uniform shirt. Pavel had both of his hands in Sulu’s hair as he whispered in his ear. “Hikaru, you are so hot. I cannot stop looking at you, never! I always wanted this, but I never thought you-“

Sulu chuckled into his curls. “Pavel, Jesus, you have no idea how much I’ve wanted you. God, ever since I first saw you I wanted to kiss those gorgeous lips, I wanted to taste you-“ He curled his hands against Pavel’s jaw and pulled him in for a kiss as if to prove it, licking into his mouth and tasting him, just as he had imagined.

Pavel rutted against him, pressing him hard against the console, and as soon as Sulu released him from the kiss, he dropped to his knees, his hands working at the front of Sulu’s pants. Sulu’s mouth was open and he couldn’t speak, couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and then Pavel had a hand around his engorged cock and was looking at him so sweetly, saying “Is okay?”

“Hell yeah,” Sulu breathed, just before Pavel slid his mouth over the head. “Oh fuck, Pavel, fuck, that mouth...” He had one hand on Pavel’s head, petting him, trying hard not to grab a handful of those curls and thrust wildly into that pretty mouth. His other hand was fisted tightly in his own hair, pulling so hard that tears came to his eyes in an attempt to make this last, to stop him from shooting down Pavel’s throat before he’d even had a chance to do _that_ and fuck, now Pavel was moving, taking him in deeper and Sulu could feel himself losing it. He took a deep breath, tried to give a warning, but it came out “Pavel, I, uhh, ahh,” and then he was coming against the back of Pavel’s throat and he thought he would never see a sight as beautiful as Pavel’s big brown eyes looking up as he swallowed. Chekov pulled away slowly, opening his mouth and sliding his tongue along the length as he stood. Sulu reached out and took him in his arms and they held each other for a minute, shaking with exertion and pleasure.

Sulu slid a hand between them, groping at Pavel’s fly, sliding his palm against the hardness that he found there. He gasped as Pavel pressed into him, surprised at the size of the bulge, and suddenly all he wanted was to see. “Pavel,” he said roughly into his ear as his hand started working at Chekov’s zipper. “I want to see you. Fuck. Let me see your beautiful cock.” Pavel took a step back, smiling shyly as he unzipped and shrugged his pants and boxers over his thin hips. Sulu had been right, it was beautiful, and he reached out to wrap a hand around it, giving a gentle stroke that wrested a gorgeous moan from Pavel’s throat.

Sulu let go, but only to wrap a toned arm around Pavel’s waist and pull him gracefully into a chair and onto his lap. Pavel arched his back against Sulu’s chest as he felt the strong hand return to grip his cock, and he reached back to wrap his hand around Sulu’s neck. Sulu groaned at the sensation of Pavel’s hot length in his fist. He twisted and squeezed as he stroked, occasionally pausing to run his thumb over the weeping slit, slicking his fingers before sliding back down and into a rhythm. Pavel squirmed against him, the sweet twitches of his ass against Sulu’s groin almost getting him hard again, and he sped up his pace. At the sight of Sulu’s fist flying over his throbbing dick, Pavel lost it, just managing to pull his shirt up as he came hard, splashing his stomach and coating Sulu’s hand.

He fell back against Sulu’s chest, panting. The world seemed to spin around them as they caught their breath, melting into each other as they drifted in and out of awareness until a sudden banging against the cockpit door roused them. Sulu stood up quickly, just managing to catch Pavel by the arm before he tumbled to the floor. They stood, facing the door to the cabin as they blushed hotly and adjusted themselves.

“What is it?” Sulu barked, a little harsher than he’d intended.

“I was just wondering, sir, when we’ll be beginning our descent,” called the flight officer.

Sulu furrowed his eyebrows and glanced toward the viewscreen, then ran over to get a closer look. “Fuck!” Unless the city had suffered a sudden collapse into the Pacific Ocean, they were definitely NOT over San Francisco. He ran his eyes over the console and noticed the flashing red communications light. Fuck, again. He hit the commlink and immediately heard a babble of voices.

“Shuttle 188, please report. Attention, Shuttle 188, you have bypassed the San Francisco shuttle dock. Are you in need of assistance? Shuttle 188, please respond.”

“Uh, flight control, this is Shuttle 188, we had a slight communications malfunction, but everything’s fine here…we’re all fine here now, thank you. Uh, how are you?” Triple fuck. He shook his head, attempting to think clearly.

“Shuttle 188, please report your amended flight plan.”

“Yeah, we’re coming …uh…we’re coming back to San Francisco. Please advise which docking port we should use. Estimated time to arrival-“ He glanced at the controls. Christ, they’d overshot by over 200 miles. “Estimated time to arrival, twenty minutes.” He made eye contact with Chekov and they both winced. He brought the shuttle around and kept flight control informed, trying to ignore the fact that his hands were shaking. As they brought the shuttle into dock, Sulu wondered if he could just take off again and never come back. Neither he nor Chekov were looking forward to the consequences of their rather _memorable_ distraction.

***

“We are so fucked, Pavel,” Sulu said, running his hands through his hair in frustration. They’d been escorted to the retaining room and left there for over an hour, as God knows how many Starfleet higher ups were informed of the situation.

Chekov had long since given up sitting and he paced the room, staring miserably at his PADD as he read out loud the various regulations that they’d violated and the consequences they were likely to face. “Engaging in activity unrelated to the pilots’ command of the shuttlecraft during flight is strictly against shuttle flight deck policies. Violations of that policy will result in termination.”

“See? We’re fucked.”

Chekov looked up at him with horror. “What will we say if they ask…what were we doing?”

Sulu shook his head dejectedly. “I’m not sure it even matters,” he said, “but…I guess we should say we were on our PADDs or something…got distracted because we were so busy, I don’t know, reviewing the shuttle schedule or something.” Was that what they were calling it these days, he thought ruefully.

Chekov was nodding in agreement when they heard voices outside the door. “Which is why they need _me_ to keep them in check!” they heard, followed by a muffled but authoritative sounding response. They shared a nervous glance and then looked at the door, flinching a bit as it burst open. Whatever they had been expecting, it was safe to say that they had not imagined that it would be Jim Kirk striding into the room, grinning and sprawling in the remaining chair.

“Hey boys,” Kirk said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “Heard you missed your landing.” He leaned back and winked at them, that grin still on his face.

“WE WERE ON OUR PADDS DISTRACTED BY THE SHUTTLE SCHEDULE!!” Chekov said loudly. Actually, he kind of yelled it. Sulu winced and Kirk just tipped his head back and laughed.

“Sure you were, buddy. We’ll make sure that goes in the official report.” He gave a sarcastic salute toward the stoic Starfleet officer that had followed him in and now stood frowning at them from the doorway.

“So,” Kirk continued, turning back to them, “the bad news is you’ve been permanently suspended by Shuttle and Transit Operations.” Chekov looked crushed, but Sulu perked up. Kirk hadn’t said anything about Starfleet. “The good news is, they seem to be considering my idea to re-commission the Enterprise as Jim Kirk’s Home for Wayward Pilots and Navigators. So!” He looked at them, grinning eagerly as he waited for their response. Sulu glanced at Pavel as if to ask if he had any idea what Kirk was talking about. Pavel gave a slight shrug and they looked back at Kirk.

“They’re giving me command of the Enterprise,” Jim said slowly, spelling it out for them. “They’re letting me choose my crew, and even though they have expressed their reservations about your attention to certain critical details - such as, oh, I don’t know, _landing_ \- they’re allowing me to take you on. You’re welcome.” He leaned back with a satisfied air, as Sulu and Chekov slowly allowed themselves to smile with relief.

“Oh thank you, Keptin!” Chekov said, looking like he was about to leap for joy. Kirk smiled kindly and gestured for them to follow him out of the retaining room. When they’d fallen a safe distance behind Kirk, Sulu reached out to squeeze Pavel’s hand excitedly. Pavel squeezed back just as Kirk turned around to ask them something, his eyes flicking to their hands and then back up to their faces. Sulu dropped Pavel’s hand quickly, but they were both a little surprised when Kirk jumped up, pumping a fist in the air.

“I knew it!” he cackled. “Woohoo! There’s love in the air, baby!” He walked back and insinuated himself in between them, throwing his arms over their shoulders. “Let’s go get Bones! We’re having ourselves a double date!”


End file.
